You say that you understand people risking their lives "for country". I don't understand that. There are lots of motivations in life and nationalism is only on

You say that you understand people risking their lives "for country". I don't understand that. There are lots of motivations in life and nationalism is only one reason. Personally, I don't think nationalism is good for motivating people towards more than warfare. I would argue that even the Apollo Program wasn't motivated by nationalism (it merely exploited nationalism for budget and attention) – its real motivation was true to the George Mallory explanation for risking his life climbing Everest: because it's there. I do understand doing things to reach the edge of space because its there. For the engineering interest. To change people's perspective about what is difficult and what is easy. To make people look towards space instead of towards their borders and flags. People have stopped thinking that progress can be made in space. Virgin Galactic and other commercial space companies are trying to change that. Sending rich people to space is simply a funding model.